


down the rabbit hole

by mollivanders



Category: Lost
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-24
Updated: 2009-11-24
Packaged: 2017-10-30 11:14:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/331154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/pseuds/mollivanders
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the middle of nowhere, she hears a strangled sob.</p>
            </blockquote>





	down the rabbit hole

**Author's Note:**

> **Title: down the rabbit hole**  
>  Characters: Daniel, Charlotte, Juliet  
> Rating: G  
> Spoilers: Through S5  
> Disclaimer: I own nothing. Lost belongs to ABC and JJ Abrams. The title is shamelessly stolen from the first chapter of _Alice in Wonderland_.

_She’s never escaping from anything at all._

It’s the last thing Charlotte wonders before she lets go, lets herself fall from the monkey bars to the soft grass below her (isn’t there supposed to be sand?) with a _crack_.

Tears spring to her eyes as she nurses her right arm, cradling it with her left. She pushes herself up and then realizes she’s cracked a tree branch, not her arm. She wipes the blood away from the gash there and blows on it (Mother will fix it later).

She’s alone in the playground, so she breaks the rules and wanders in to the forest. She can almost hear her mother’s voice in her head, _don’t stray_ (almost). She wipes her hands on her dress and picks her way across the tree branches lying in her path.

Charlotte’s never been this deep in the jungle but she thinks it should be getting dark by now. Instead, light filters softly through the leaves above and the further she walks, the brighter it gets. Curious, she keeps walking, searching for someone, anyone.

In the middle of nowhere, she hears a strangled sob.

Rushing forward, Charlotte almost falls into the not-well, because at the bottom there’s no water (only a woman, curled up and crying).

 _Hello_? she calls tentatively. The woman looks up, blonde curls matted to her forehead and dirt streaked across her face. She looks confused, and Charlotte would be too, trapped at the bottom of a not-well. _Can you help me?_ the woman asks, voice hoarse from crying (or from something else) for so long.

As if it’s always been there, Charlotte spies a length of rope by her feet. _Here_ , she calls down, _take this_. Charlotte’s smart – she’s read about this in books. _Remember to tie the other end to something else_ the woman responds and Charlotte thinks, for a moment, her voice is familiar.

She brushes the thought away, and tying the rope to a tree she grips the other end tightly with her little hands (buoying up and down) as the woman drags herself up.

When she emerges from the not-well, the first thing Charlotte wants to say is _I love pink_ but the woman just curls up by the edge like she was before. _We have to go_ , Charlotte wants to say, but curls up next to her, waiting.

Night falls.

Charlotte wakes up to the woman drawing circles in the sand, like she doesn’t know what else to do, so Charlotte tells her she likes pink and they have to go, tugging on her hand.

 _What’s the point?_ the woman asks. _It’s not like we can leave this place. I thought we could, but we can’t._

She’s only six, but Charlotte thinks she’s just being silly. _Come on, silly_ , she says. The woman sighs, but stands up and takes Charlotte’s hand; she swings their arms happily. _This way_ , she instructs. She doesn’t know why, doesn’t know how, but she knows she’s waiting for someone. Not her mother.

The woman is looking at her strangely, and while Charlotte’s used to it (not a lot of people have red hair, she’s learned), she realizes she doesn’t know the woman’s name.

 _Juliet_ , she replies, her answer sounding more like a question. Now that they’re walking though, she seems content to walk with Charlotte wherever.

 _Mine’s Charlotte_ , she supplies, and the woman (Juliet) tightens her hand. Her grip is familiar and not entirely friendly, but Charlotte isn’t worried. Monsters only come out at night, and this one sleeps.

The next day or week or year, they walk into a clearing with another deep pit in the ground. Juliet stays away from the edge, warily scanning the trees in the forest for something not there. When Charlotte skips to the well (because this one has water in it), Juliet lets go of her hand and shrinks away. _What are you doing?_ she cautions.

 _Waiting_ , Charlotte tells her before climbing on the wooden structure above the well to get a better look. _Waiting for who?_ Juliet doesn’t bother asking.

It’s someone she’s sure is dead, or someone she doesn’t care to know about.

The well’s frame is like a swing, Charlotte realizes, but knows she’ll get in trouble if she falls in and gets wet. She climbs down to the wall instead and bangs her feet against the ancient stones.

For a moment, she thinks Juliet might leave, but she’s just a child (she has more interesting things to do).

Charlotte’s feet go _tap, tap, tap; tap, tap, tap_ in a separate rhythm, creating echoes of waves inside the well until it’s finally whooshing back and forth. Juliet grabs the well’s wooden frame and holds Charlotte back from the water as it spirals up and then disappears, disappears down into black nothingness.

 _Get back!_ Juliet cries, but her voice is gone (she’s wasted it all). Charlotte has nowhere to go, and there’s no way to stop the plume of water that rockets out of the well, gushing around them (all the water in the ocean has come to claim them).

The explosion is all life and sparkles to Charlotte (no blood and death here), until she loses Juliet. She splashes frantically in the water (so far from home), trying to find her (again), but she’s too small and the water’s too big.

When the water finally, finally subsides, Charlotte’s not breathing.

Inside herself, she’s falling again. She wonders if she can finally leave this place.

There’s a man kneeling on the soggy ground next to her ( _Daniel_ , she remembers), clutching his chest and wheezing. Her red hair is mixing with the muck and the mud and his hands slip in it, gently cradling her head. She feels Juliet grasp her cold hand (but they’re all together now).

 _No, no, no_ she hears Daniel say before she escapes (to blackness and falling).

As the last of the water seeps away, into the mud and into the well, it sucks her down, and her body pulls them with her, deeper and deeper (there’s no struggle here now).

Let it be.

~

Sputtering and choking, her team pulls her out of the quicksand. A strong hand grabs hers and tugs, pulling her into his lap as he pumps air into her lungs.

She opens her eyes, sees brown hair, brown eyes, and a starched shirt smudged with dirt.

 _Who are you_ , she hears herself ask. His hands shift under her frame, holding her steadier. _I’m Dan_ , he explains. _Are you okay?_

She rubs her eyes and sits up. _I just had the strangest dream_ , she says.

_Finis_


End file.
